Container for relatively large sheets



Aug. 29, `1933. H. l.. DE LISLE CONTAINER FOR RELJATIVELY LARGE SHEETS Filed Aug. 1, i928 Patented Aug. 29, 1933 PATENT oI-Fica CONTAINER FDE RELATIVELY vLARGE SHEETS nai-01d L. ne Lisle, chicago, nl.

Application August 1, 192s. serial Nazeasss 8Claims.

These improvements relate to containers which are customarily in the form of drawers insertable into a cabinet and designed to hold such sheetmaterial as tracings, blueprints, etc. found in drafting rooms. Such sheet-material is usually of relatively large size, and the ling of such material for ready reference has been accompanied by much diiculty and injury to the sheets.

One important object'of the invention is to pro- 10 Vvide a peculiarly shallow drawer for such sheetmaterial according to which the sheets may be conveniently and safely handled therein. In my practice the vdrawer illustrated is only one inch in depth. This notable shallowness effects a great saving in storage or current-ling space. It is an object to provide a very shallow drawer which will nevertheless contain what is substantially the maximum number of sheets found practically possible to handle in one bunch or mass-namely about one hundred sheets. According to older practice this same number of sheets occupied drawers the shallowest of which were about two inches in depth, and even then the sheets were only diiiicultly withdrawable and insertable and subject to much damage. Specific objects are to provide in such a container means for rendering the sheets easily withdrawable and insertable, especially with reference to those near the middle and bottom of the pack, and even those only a few sheets from the top. It is an object also to provide simple and conveniently-operated means for adjusting the eiective length of the drawer whereby the front edges of the` sheet-material will remain as desired in substantially vertical lines close to the front end of the drawer. Another object is to provide means for preserving the sheet-material against such destructive elects as result from the curling up of the sheets at the ends and catching in the cabinet when the drawer is operated, these provisions at the same time holding the vsheet-material in its desired flat condition. Another speciflc object is to provide va drawer which will be easily operable notwithstanding its relatively great horizontal dimensions. Other objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a perspective of my improved drawer or container complete, except that a small part of the side construction is broken away for clearness of illustration; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal section showing the rear end portion ofthe drawer and various details, as o n the line V2-2 f Fig. 1; Fig. .3 is a fragmentary and broken sectional view from front to back-showing principally the sheet- (Cl. 12S- 26) lifter construction in its lowered position; Fig. 4

is a small sectional fragment at the front end of the device; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view as on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1, showing also an end wall of the cabinet, fragments of other similardrawers one above and one below the one fully illustrated, and the guides on which such drawers in the cabinet rest; Fig. 6 is a transverse crosssectional view, broken away medially, showing the holding means for the adjustable stop at the rear portion of the drawer; and Fig. 'I is a small side elevation with the side-wall parts .shown in Fig.

1 broken away. It shows how some of the sheetmaterial is Yheld in raised position at the time of the insertion or removal of a sheet or sheets at a given place in the pack.

The drawer 10 in my practice is made of sheet-iron. The bottom 11 thereof, Fig. 6, is turned upward at each side to form outer side walls 12 and thence inward to form a narrow top part 13. These side walls are reinforced by a member havingatop part 14, a normally vertical part 15 and a bottom part 16,'the latter extend- 'ing a short distance over the bottom 11, as clearly shown in Fig. 5. The several overlapping parts are spot-welded together.

Inner upstanding walls or partitions limiting laterally the space occupied bythe sheets to be held are denominated 17 and 17a (see Figs. 1 and 6). These partition members 1'7 have a bot- 85 tom extension 18 spot-welded to the part 16. A narrow space longitudinally extending is thus provided between the parts 15 and 17 at one side and 15 and 17a at the other side, Yand this space is partly occupied by a link-and-lever construction forming part of the sheet lifter hereinafter to be described.

'The front end of the drawer 10 has a front vertical wall 20 and a short top walll 21 integral with the bottom wall 11. A vertical reinforcingv member 22 has a top extension 22a and a` bottom extension 22h, these parts being spot-welded to the top parts 21 and the bottom 11 respectively.

At the rear end the bottom wall 11 is turned up to form the vertical rear Wall 23 (Fig. 2). There is spot-welded to the bottom l1 and the end wall 23 a channel-iron reinforcing piece having parts 24, 24a and 24h, the latter forming a narrow flange-like top at the rear end. As mentioned, 105 this drawer is only one inch high in my practice.

It will ordinarily be from say thirty to sixty inches wide and say thirty inches from front to back.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a cover 25 of flexible sheet-material, in my practice a light-weight no Oil cloth, is secured rigidly at its rear end to the bottom of the container or drawer 10. To hold it in place as well as further to reinforce the drawer construction I provide a channel-iron cleat 26 (Fig. 2) interiltting between the top wall 24h and the bottom wall 24a at the rear end and around which the cover material extends, bolts as 27 serving to clamp the cover 25 tightly.

This flexible cover 25 extends forward to the front end of the drawer where it is secured, preferably, to a substantially heavy bar as 28 (Fig. 4) the ends of which at 28a (Fig. 1) project beyond the partitions 17 and 17a, and each of those partitions is notched at 29 (Fig. 4) providing a shoulder at 30 to hold these ends 28a.

The length ofthe cover 25 is such that when the usual number of sheets is in the drawer the rod or bar 28 comes to the notch 29 so nearly that with a pull upon it it can be drawn into engagement with the retaining shoulder 30, where it remains rmly caught, yet readily releasable. I provide two finger holes 31 (Fig. 1) in the cover 25 for taking hold of the bar 28 both to apply and to release it.

Such a cover as 25 performs the important ofce of protecting the sheet-material from dirt and dust and, importantly, that of holding the mass of sheet-material down at its ends, sides and in the middle so that the sheet-material will not get caught and torn or be abraded during the operation of moving the drawer in and out.

AIt is customary also for the workmen to luse drawers of this kind as temporary tables, drawing them out partly and resting objects upon them. Such a cover as 25 makes this possible without injury to the sheet-material, While providing also a more satisfactory top on which various kinds of work may be done in casual and exigent occasions therefor.

Before the sheet-material is inserted my practice is to provide another cover in the drawer, one of fairly heavy and strong paper, and this is shown at 33, Fig. 2. One thickness of it is first laid upon the bottom of the drawer and after the sheet-material is inserted the cover 33-is brought forward over the material and the end folded back at the front edge of the pack of sheets. Such a cover or envelope as 33 is valuablel when it is desired to remove all of the sheets bodily, as a single stack or mass, as to transfer them to some other folder (or merely retain them in the envelope 33) when the time comes to store the stack of sheets away.

Drawers of the kind Idescribed are designed for sheet-material of substantially large dimensions. In the same drafting room a certain job may be put on the largest sheets that would t into the drawer, while other jobs may be done on sheets fitting from side to side within the drawer but beingof lesser dimensions than the front to rear measurements of the drawer. I provide means for adjusting the effective length of the drawer so as to accommodate sheets of various -sizes in the fore-and-aft direction as they are led.

These adjustment means are in the form of a stop (Fig. 2) having an upright part 35, a top part 36 and a bottom part 37. The vertical part 35 serves as a st op while the top part 36 isan overlyingflange-like device under which the rear -ends of the sheets extend, and, so extending, they are protected to a considerable extent.

against curling up and getting caught when the drawer is -movedin and out.

, In this connection I may point out thatthe cover 25 is functional with the stop and retainer 35-36 since even with this protection 36 present Vthe tendency .of the sheetsis to slip and slide forward, curling up at the front end and freeing the rear end from the retainer 36. The cover 25 prevents this by holding the front ends of the sheets down against such slipping and curling action, and in this connection, too, it is pointed out that the bar 28 (Fig. 4) is a heavy mem ber, the weight of which is sufficient to hold the ends of the sheet material against the sliding and curling action mentioned.

Reverting to the adjustable stop device (Fig. 2), on the ange-like base part 37 are secured holding means shown in Fig. 6. At one end these holding means comprise a pin 38- having a base 38a spot-Welded to the ange 37. This pin 38 passes through any one of the holes 39 in the partition 17a, a plurality of which holes are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, these holes 39 being close together to provide Various small degrees of adjustment and extending in a series from the back or rear end of the partition forward to say near the middle of it.

-At the other end of the stop device is secured a releasable holding member comprising a bolt 40 ina bracket 41, the bolt having a finger piece 42 and there are notches 43 in the bracket 41 whereby the bolt may be moved backand forth and held releasably in either position.` This locking device is the ordinary one frequently used on doors, windows, etc. When the bolt 40 is retracted the stop device as a whole may be lifted at that end and the pin 38 at the other end may then be inserted in some other hole 39. Spaced apart holes 44 in the partition 17 accommodate the bolt 40 at the various places of adjustment. 110

Fig. 5 shows fragmentarily how these shallow drawers are arranged one above another in a cabinet. The cabinet side wall is marked 45. L-shaped brackets 46 are spot-welded to the side Wall and constitute guides on which the re- 115 spective drawers may slide. The front ends of the drawers are held slightly 01T of the guides by rollers to bementioned, but therear ends of the drawers are on the guides until the drawers are pulled out part way. .When'they are drawn out- 120 wardsufciently they naturally have a tendency to tilt up at the back. Such drawers when filled are fairly heavy. I provide means for rendering it quite easy to pull these drawers out and push them back. These means are rollers' at 125 the front and rear of each drawer. If the drawer be substantially narrow (which might be the case while still being quite long from front to back) one of these rollers at front and at back may suice, but ordinarily three of v these should 130 be employed as illustrated. Y

The rear rollers are marked 50. 'Ihey are severally held in brackets 51, and project slightly above the top surface of the drawer. Similarly at the front, the rollers 52 project above the top surface of the drawer, but here, for the sake of appearance'as well as for saving space I have these rollers 52 project through openings in the narrow top Wall structure 21 and 22a. They are pivoted. on small shafts 53, Fig. 4, carried by brackets 54. l

The arrangement of these rollers and 52 l is such that when a given drawer is pulled out- -may easily be withdrawn, or another one may manner the drawers are in a somewhat iloating relation to the ones next above and next below them respectively, and they operate very easily. There is thus coaction between the drawers next above and below a given drawer, and also with a cially to such as are fartherA down toward the middle and those near the bottom of the stack. Such sheets are constantly being referred to and for various purposes must be withdrawn from time to time. It is frequently desired also to insert a sheet vor sheets at some particular place in the stack, and it has .been impossible to work them satisfactorily into the mass. In attempting this they are rubbed, the ink 'is frequently smudged, and ends of th sheets bent over and the body badly wrinkled. I

I provide means for overcoming these and various other objections to the older practice.

The means illustrated constitute a liftingdevice having a support or cross-member 55 which is given the form of a plate of thin sheet-metal having its top and'bottom edges, as shown in Fig. 1, turned over for strength and finish. This plate or supporting member 55 extends from sideto side of the drawer, or is at least as wide as the sheet-material to be handled by it. At each end of it there is secured a lever bar 56 which extends downward when in position shown in Fig. 1 and veach bar 56 has an extension 57 constituting a lever arm at the free end of which is a roller 58 adapted to operate upon the ange-like part 18, Fig. 6.

Pivoted to the bar 56 at 59 is a link 60 extending forward and provided with an oiset at 61 and pivoted at 62 upon the inner side wall 15, Fig. 5, as by a bolt. The offset at 61 provides that the bar 56 may occupy space alongside the link 60, the two parts folding together side by side when the various elements are in the relative positions shown by Fig. 3.

The operation of the lifter is shown in Fig. '7. When it is desired to remove or insert a sheet at some place within the body of the mass the cover 25 is laid back over the supporting member 55 when the supporting member is in its lower position as shown in Fig. 3. Thereupon the front end portion of the bunchof sheets immediately above the place of insertion or removal is likewise laid over and superposed upon the plate-like support 55. Thereupon the mass of bent-over sheetmaterial, and the support 55, are lifted and swung upward and rearward until their position is as shown by Fig. 7. During this upward swinging action the lever arm 57 causes both the plate 55 and the mass of sheet-material to bey lifted bodily substantially the distance between the pivot 59 and the pivot 58a of 'the roller 58. The stop, y57a on the lever arm 57 coacts with the link 60 to limit rearwardfmovement of the lifter and the sheets carried thereby. Such a stop feature is not always necesary as these drawers are in a cabinet and the lifter and sheets may be laid against the face of the cabinet when the drawer is pulled out the desired distance.

Note from Fig. 7 that a gap or space occurs at 64 between the mass of sheets which has been raised and those which have not been disturbed in the container, and that this space extends'close to the rear ends of the sheets. A sheet at the top of the pile remaining at in the container -or space 64, while the upper free-end vportion is the sheet remains in the drawer, approximately easily be inserted at that place. This vbeing done the sheet material as S and the lifter device are restored to their former position by swinging them forward and downward.

It will be noted from Fig. 7 that when sheets are normally turned over -the transverselyextending member 55, when in raised position, the sheet material is divided into three distinct parts or portions, and ordinarily these three portions are of about the same depth, measuring from front to rear. `In Fig. '7 the reference character S is` applied to the middle one of these three portions, the lower one being shown abovethe gap shown hanging downward and rearward of member 55. The sheets operated upon by the sheetlifting device are folded or b ent twice, and the bends are such thatapproximately one-third of one-third rises therefrom to the top of member 55, and approximately one-third hangs downward from and rearward of member 55. These proportions may vary but the division into thirds will be found to be the most satisfactory.

'Ihe various features thus illustrated cooperate to provide a ling drawer or container of notable importance in the saving of space, in the preservation ofthe sheet material, and in the ease and celerity with .which the sheets may be handled for consultation, removal or insertion and for the bodily removal of the mass, and also in the ease with which a substantially heavy drawer and its contents may be drawn out and pushed back.

I contemplate as being included in these improvements all such changes, variations and departures from what is thus specifically illustrated and described as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A normally horizontal open-top container for relatively large sheets, a sheet-lifting device mounted on the container comprising a frame mounted to swing upwardly and downwardly on a fulcrum between the ends of the container and having a part extending substantially from side to side of the container and over which the front portion of sheets in the container can be turned so as to hang thereon when it is desired to remove sheets from or insert sheets into the container adjacent to and below thesheets so lifted, and means associated with said frame for raising it bodily when it is swung upward.

2. An open-top container for relatively large sheets having mounted to swing upward and downward therein a sheet-lifting device comprising a sheet support extending substantially from sideto side of the container and above the sheets therein, and lever means attached to said support and adapted to elevate the support bodily when the support is swung upward.

3. An open-top container for relatively large sheets having mounted therein a sheet support extending substantially from side to side of the container, a leverat each end of said support and extending rearward therefrom when the support is in lowered position, each of said levers having pivoted thereto an upwardly-and--downwardly moving fulcrum device, the fulcrum devices being pivoted at points between theends of said levers respectively for holding said support vfor upward and downward swinging movements,

desired to remove sheets from .or insert sheets into the container adjacent to and below vthe sheets so lifted, and means associated with'said frame for raising it'andsheet material thereon bodily whereby space isprovided between a mass of sheet material in the container lying dat and a mass of sheet material hanging upon said frame at places where the two masses of sheet material are substantially inA face to face relation in the container. Y 5. An open-top container for relativelylarge sheets, a sheet-lifting device comprising a sheet4 support extending substantially from side 'to side of the container above and normally resting on the sheets therein and over which sheets in the container may be turned so as to hang thereon when said sheet support is in raised position, means holding said sheet support for upward and downward swinging movements, and means for elevating said support to provide space for the removal and insertion of sheets between-the sheets v'so hung and sheets below the sheets so hung.

5 and 6. The combination of a substantially wide, long shallow horizontally-disposed open-top drawer having ailat bottom wall, and upstandng side, front and rear walls, and 'being adapted to slide-outward into a'partly-exposedmosition be' yond the front wall of a cabinetwhile remaining horizontal,A the drawer being adapted to contain a' substantially large number of large sheets of tracings, blue prints and the like superposed hat upon each other as a mass, and a sheet-lifting device comprising lateral supports and a part extending transversely of the drawer substantially from side to side thereof .and with its front edge at a materially great .distance from the front edge of the mass of sheets when said member is in lowered position, and .being mounted to lie on top of the mass of sheets with its front edge forward of the middle thereof, said lateral supports being mounted on the drawer to carry said part upward and rearward from said lowered position whereby said part may rst lie transverselyupon the mass of sheets in the drawer and whereby, with the drawer in partly-exposed position and remaining horizontal, portionsY of upper sheets` in the drawer may be doubled backward and over the sheet-supporting part lying thereon and said part may then be swung upward and rearward.l

rearward of said means.

beyond, a vertical planethrough the'places where the lateral supports are mounted for swinging movements so as to carry upward and rearward l the portions of the mass of sheets so turned over upon said part, to provide that a sheet next belowthe portion of the mass so turned over and carried by said part may be readily removed.-

7. The'l combinationof a. substantially wide, long and shallow horizontally-disposed open-top drawer having a dat bottom wall, and upstanding side, front and rear walls,l and being adapted to slide outward into a partly-exposed position beyond the front wall of a cabinet while remaining horizontal, the drawer being adapted to contain a substantially large number of large sheets of tracings, blueprints and the like superposed at upon each other as a mass, anda sheet-lifting device including means dening a folding line for sheets, which line extends transversely between the sides of the container and above the mass when the device is in its lowered position,

said device being mounted on the drawer to swing upwardly and rearwardly from a transverse axis 'near the horizontal plane of the mass and at approximately two-thirds of the distance from front to rearof the mass, said device being adapted to have forward portions of sheets turned over thereon so as to hang upon said means whereby when said deviceis in its normal raised position and is slanting upward and slightly rearward'from lsaid axis the vsheets normally carried thereby are turned over on said bendingline at approximately I onefthird of the distance from the front edges to the rear edges of the sheets so carried, and said turned-over portions hang downwardv from the 8. The combination o f a horizontally-disposed shallow open-top container for relativelylarge sheets of tracings, blueprints and the like,.and a substantially U-shaped member Ahaving its legs mounted on the container adjacent to the sides thereof and betweenthe front and rearends of the container for up and down swinging movements whereby said membermay assume a vertical position at or near the middle portion of the container, the transversely-extending part of said member being adapted to press upon forward portions of a mass of sheets in the container to hold them down protectively, said transversely-extending part being sufficiently rearward of the iront edges of the sheets to permit forward portions of such sheets to be turned over rearward upon said part so as to hang thereon whereby when said sheet-lifting deviceis swung upward and rearward the front portions of sheets so turned over will be carried upward to provide ready access to the sheet immediately below the sheets so turned over.

` HAROLD L. DE LISLE. 

